1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the dietary supplement, cetyl myristoleate. More particularly, the present invention relates to the use of cetyl myristoleate derived exclusively from vegetable sources as a treatment for osteoarthritis and other inflammatory diseases of the musculoskeletal system in animals, specifically equines. In addition, the present invention also relates to the treatment of injuries and stress-related trauma that adversely affect the orthopedic and muscular systems of horses.
2. General Background of the Invention
Nearly 50% of the Western world population over 65 has chronic, painful, disabling arthritis in one form or another of the disease. New prescription drugs, most notably Vioxx® and Celebrex® offered for arthritis relief have efficacy for large numbers of patients. Each of these drugs has achieved U.S. sales of billions of dollars in a relatively short time. Unfortunately, these chemically and biologically very powerful drugs have resulted in adverse reactions in a small minority of patients, some of which have been fatal.
There are a number of dietary supplements on the market that purport to offer relief for arthritis; glucosamine and chondroitin are examples. Dietary supplements need no prescription. Glucosamine has been on the market for two decades and has achieved annual U.S. sales of more than one hundred million dollars.
Research has shown that another dietary supplement, cetyl myristoleate, is a remedy for patients with osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and other joint disorders. Cetyl myristoleate (CM), as an arthritis palliative, was discovered by Harry Diehl in 1964. Through his research, he showed that CM protected Swiss albino mice from arthritis as well as laboratory rats exposed to Freund's adjuvant. U.S. Pat. No. 5,569,676, U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,881, U.S. Pat. No. 4,049,824 were granted for the use of cetyl myristoleate for the prevention and treatment of various forms of arthritis.
Until 1999, all commercial cetyl myristoleate was based on a mixture of “bovine” straight-chain fatty acids containing mainly two 14-carbon, straight-chain fatty acids, myristic and myristoleic. The commercial source of these fatty acids was beef tallow, a by-product of the beef rendering industry. The beef tallow, which is a triglyceride (glycerol triester), is split to produce free fatty acids and glycerine. Large fatty acid commercial producers then fractionate the fatty acids by distillation, with the high myristoleic acid-containing stream one fraction out of many possibilities. Esterification of these fatty acids with cetyl alcohol forms cetyl myristoleate and cetyl myristate.
Unfortunately, while tallow-based CM products can be used to treat arthritis in humans, tallow-based cetyl myristoleate is not palatable for horses. Horses are naturally herbivores, they do not eat meat. When the tallow-based CM product is mixed with their grain, the horses refuse to eat it. This makes the treatment of arthritis and other musculoskeletal conditions in horses with conventional tallow-based CM very difficult.